There are known atmospheric engines, which operation is based on the use of atmospheric pressure as an external source of non-thermal energy converted into mechanical work.
There is a known device, which uses atmospheric pressure as an external energy source to produce mechanical work (patent application DE 4131627 A1, F01B 29/02, 1993).
Such device consists of a fixed cylinder with a reciprocating moving piston connected to a crank by a crank rod. The atmosphere is pressurized or exhausted through channels in the closed end of the cylinder.
As demonstrated by bench tests of an analogous device carried out by the authors of the claimed technical solution, the disadvantage of such device is the following: when the frequency of reciprocating motion of the piston exceeds 3 Hz (180 rotations per second), the atmospheric pressure on the outside of the end surface of the piston in the open part of the cylinder, where the piston is in contact with air environment, starts to decrease resulting in a sharp reduction of the device efficiency. This is due to turbulent processes in air environment within the inner chamber of the cylinder.
There is a known device for vacuum-and-atmospheric cycle of supply of non-thermal external energy, which uses atmospheric pressure as an external energy source to produce mechanical work (in particular, to move loads relative to the supporting and underlying surfaces) (the patent UA No. 89112, B65G 7/00, 2009, and the patent EA No. 013312, 2010).
Such device consists of a support mounted on the underlying surface, a bearing platform with a bearing surface, load platform rigidly connected with relocated load, a working cavity with operating medium executed as a bellows with an elastic side surface which upper base is rigidly connected with the supporting surface and lower base is rigidly connected with the load platform. The working cavity is connected with the exhaust system through the exhaust valve and with the supply system through the pressurization valve. The device also provides a closed cycle of operating medium movement. The crank mechanism with the rotating shaft is rigidly connected to the lower base of the working cavity.
The asymmetric rotary engine with a continuously operating torque that relates to internal combustion engines (application WO/2004/007926) is a device, which is close to the claimed invention by its design.
This rotary internal combustion engine (ICE) comprises one or more movable concave profiles and a stationary convex elliptical surface. The movable profiles are constrained in moving around a stationary convex surface to form a working space between them. The rotary engine comprises a chamber limited by the outer wall of the chamber, the rear wall of the chamber, and the inner wall of the chamber, which surrounds an isolated section. The chamber has an inlet, an outlet, and the ignition opening. The concave profile can move within the chamber and interact, while sliding, with one or more of the outer and inner chamber walls. The crankpin is located on the concave profile. The crank disk can intake the crankpin and become driven by it. The crankshaft is located in such a way that it passes through the isolated section and is connected with a crank disk. The end plate, a concave profile, the rear wall of the chamber and the inner wall of the chamber form a cavity with an operating medium.
A method of creating continuously acting torque in the expansion stroke of the rotary engine includes forming an operating medium and moving concave profile around the stationary convex inner wall of the chamber by a smooth displacement of the profile along the outer wall of the chamber.
The disadvantages of the engine are a complex form of its basic mating sealing surfaces and as a result a decrease in sealing capacity and specific power because of the leakage of operating medium through gaps.
The main disadvantage of all the above devices is the need to convert the reciprocating motion into the rotary motion by a crank mechanism. This leads to a 50% power loss on the shaft of the device. Unlike internal-combustion engine where the pressure force of the operating medium decreases rapidly during the motion of the piston, the vacuum-and-atmospheric engine (VAE) provides the constant atmospheric pressure (which does not change in absolute value) on the end of the piston or bellows during the expansion stroke, thus preventing 50% power loss.
The closest device to the claimed invention by its design is a Panchenko modified rotary engine (patent RU 2289701, IPC 7 F02 B 53/00). This internal combustion engine is a four-stroke engine comprising two or more sections, each of which includes the following components: a cylindrical housing and a rotor (the rotors of all the sections are mounted on the same shaft and are displaced by a certain angle), the elements of supply and exhaust of operating medium, and a compression chamber. The engine also comprises two separating flaps, which contact with the rotor surface, separate the elements of supply of operating medium and exhaust of spent operating medium, and divide the rotor cavity into two chambers. The rotor is provided with two streamlined blades, which contact with end lugs of both flaps and divide the rotor cavity into four chambers; each rotor blade has a working cavity with the valve and a sliding window.
The disadvantage of this design is the arrangement of working cavities with valves and sliding windows that act as separating flaps between the compression and expansion sections, which are tightly in contact with the surface of moving rotor and stationary housing. Such arrangement greatly complicates the design of the engine and deteriorates manufacturability and service life of the device. In addition, any leakage of the fuel mixture into the compression section caused by jamming of a separating flap or any leakage in the fuel system may cause an explosion, obviously resulting in high explosion risk of the engine.
The remaining four variants of engine design offer various options of flap actuators and various types of operating mediums, that does not change the principle of operation of this device. Basically, this design can only operate in internal combustion engines, which makes it impossible to apply the vacuum-and-atmospheric cycle of non-thermal external energy supply.